“IT did save my life, to be honest.”

Football is full of hyperbole, but Scott Davies is telling the truth. That’s what he is all about now.

The midfielder has just finished talking non-stop for an hour to Oxford United’s squad about his steady descent into the chaos of a gambling addiction.

It was Davies’ 69th stop on his season-long tour of the 72 EFL clubs as part of a partnership between Epic Risk Management and Sky Bet.

The campaign has given him a purpose, filling the vacuum created by a squandered professional career.

“I love it,” said the 31-year-old, whose last bet came in June 2015, just before checking into rehab at the Sporting Chance clinic.

“What replaces the buzz of playing professionally is I know I wouldn’t be taken seriously if I went back to gambling.

“If I did I wouldn’t be able to do this job, so for me it keeps me sane and doing the right things at the right times.

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“The biggest thing for me now is the honesty. A lot of the time I told lies.

“I don’t have to worry about trying to deceive people and that makes my life so much easier.”

His tale of deceit and destruction, blowing £250,000 of his own money and another £60,000 from his parents, putting a strain on their marriage.

And the details are made all the more brutal by the fact some in the room were teammates with him during a 15-month spell with the club.

Away from the serious business of a matchday, getting a group of footballers to sit still and concentrate can be a challenge. But not this afternoon.

The usual dressing room banter vanishes as Davies’ story unfolds.

He said: “The engagement shown has been second to none.

“What you saw here, it’s been like that everywhere.

“I went to one club the other day and the sports scientist asked how long the session was.

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“When I told him it was an hour he said ‘all the best’.

“But I know what we talk about hits home with a lot of people.

“And with the players who don’t gamble, I know they’ll be looking round the squad thinking ‘I know someone like that’.”

The aim of the session is not to scare players off gambling altogether, more about managing it and recognising when it is getting out of hand.

While Davies stresses it is a societal problem, footballers are an at-risk category with their comparatively large amounts of free time and disposable income.

And the message, coming from someone in their profession who has stared into the abyss and bounced back, is hitting home.

Dozens have made contact this season after the sessions.

He said: “Going from £18,000 a year one season to £120,000 the next, how do you tell a young player to deal with that money? No-one teaches you.

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“You don’t understand how powerful an addiction can be unless you’re in it.

“My mum tried. She used to print things off for me to read, but she never got through to me because it was too close to home for me to get off my chest.

“When I went to rehab the first person I spoke to was an ex-footballer who tried to kill himself twice and he was a gambling addict. I was like ‘hallelujah, you understand me’.

“We want to be an education provider rather than me preaching at players.

“We just want to say ‘this is my life story, this is how we deem gambling to be an occasional user, a heavy user, a pathological user’.

“We want to get hold of people before they get to the edge of the cliff, rather than dragging them back when they get there, because that’s the hardest thing.

“I went right to the edge and had to claw myself back.

“It’s been so good we’ve been able to help. It’s such a cliché but helping one person is brilliant.

“The more we can assist the better and it gives me a buzz to do the next talk.

“Martin O’Neill the other day gave me great feedback after we visited Nottingham Forest.

“When you get acknowledged for the work you’re doing and you know it’s helping people, it’s brilliant.

“I’ll be doing this for four years and I’m looking forward to year two already.”

OF the Oxford United players still at the club who were teammates with Scott Davies, Sam Long arguably knew him the best.

At that point the defender (right) was a teenager with only a handful of senior appearances under his belt, but spent plenty of time with Davies.

It meant the session last week had particular impact on him.

“It was eye-opening,” Long said.

“I was his roommate and I was probably a little bit naïve when it came to not really understanding what was going on around me.

“But looking back on it I could see it first-hand.

“I’m glad he’s turned his life around.

“It’s a cliché, but he has and you can see he’s enjoying what he’s doing.

“I’m really happy for him.”